


The Healer & the Doctor

by TrulyCertain



Series: I like big plots and I cannot lie (Kink Meme prompts) [7]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Dragon Age
Genre: (But he's still a smartarse), But Ten only appears in a letter cameo, Gen, Mild horror?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 02:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrulyCertain/pseuds/TrulyCertain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Garrett frowns, unfolding the parchment, and reads, in large, scrawling handwriting, Anders at his shoulder,<b> Anders, give this to Garrett. Hello, Garrett. I'm the Doctor. Now DUCK.</b></i>
</p><p>Written for this prompt at the k!meme: "what if the statues in the Gallows are really Weeping Angels?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Healer & the Doctor

Night has fallen. Anders looks over his shoulder as they walk through the streets and ascend the stairs to enter the Gallows, seeming to suppress a shudder - something not unusual for him, being Kirkwall's  _other_  resident apostate (and as paranoid as they come), but this is for a very  _particular_  reason. "Someone I was healing," he begins quietly, then stops, looking around once more. "He was saying that the statues here... they  _move._ "  
  
Garrett barks out a laugh, looking at him disbelievingly. "Never had you down as one for fairy tales, Anders."  
  
Anders shakes his head. "There was a woman who used to come into the clinic. She was pregnant, wanted me to keep an eye on things..." He huffs out a sigh. "A few weeks later, I heard a noise, and I went to see what it was..." He swallows, looks at the floor, and when his eyes meet Garrett's, they are haunted. "It was  _her_ , Garrett. She was so...  _old._  And she looked so _familiar..._ " He gazes somewhere past Garrett's shoulder, his eyes glassy with memory and seeing things the Champion can't.  
  
Garrett shrugs. "Could've been her mother."  
  
Anders fixes him with a glare that makes him want to wither and disappear into the ground for his apparent stupidity. "You really think so, do you? A woman that looked like her down to every last detail, down to a mole, just..." He pokes his cheek. "Here? It was her, all right. And she said that one of the statues had touched her - just a brush. She woke up before the Blight, before Maric's reign. Before we were even  _born._ "  
  
Garrett realises, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he's stopped breathing, and makes an effort to exhale. "Good story you have there."  
  
Another withering glare from Anders, who hands him a piece of parchment. "She gave me this, right before she died. I wanted to see what you thought. Open it."  
  
Garrett frowns, unfolding it, and reads, in large, scrawling handwriting, Anders at his shoulder,  _Anders, give this to Garrett. Hello, Garrett. I'm the Doctor. Now DUCK._  
  
They share a look and then obey the mysterious writing; two arrows thud into the wall behind them, narrowly missing their heads, and then they're surprised to find themselves set upon by several dog lords. Garrett only has time to take another quick glance at the parchment, and he shouts out the other order written on it. "Head for the archer!" He shoves it into his pocket and wades into the fray.  
  
When they fight their way through the thugs to the sole bowman, Anders eventually managing to finish him off with a few well-placed ice spells, Anders watches him expectantly. "Well?"

Garrett crouches down next to the corpse, pinching the bridge of his nose in consternation; his fingers leave a bloody mark in their wake. Suddenly, he pushes an index finger into the air in a silent mime of understanding, then begins searching the dead man's clothes, digging his hands into pockets and lifting one of his arms in attempt to gain access to his trousers. Anders watches this all with a raised eyebrow and not a small amount of morbid fascination. There's a grunt, and then Garrett triumphantly lifts a bloodstained parchment into the air above his head. Anders takes it from him, unfolding it and reading it as Garrett climbs to his feet.  
  
That same looping, sprawling handwriting is on this piece, too; the two surprised mages read,  _Read fast. This was the only way I could find to communicate. Complicated, but..._  There's a long ink smudge, and whatever else was written is obscured and impossible to read.  _Look, you're both in danger. So's the Knight Captain you're going to see._  
  
Garrett and Anders look at each other once again. How could the mysterious parchment writer have known that?  
  
 _The statues were dormant, but something's triggered them. Something's been interfering with time - the sheer amount of magical energy, from Meredith's..._  Another ink smudge and what looks like a sentence that's been furiously scribbled out; it's unreadable.  _Hasn't happened yet. Sorry. This hasn't either, for me._  
  
There's a scraping noise, almost like moving stone, and the hissing sound of rock dust falling to the ground.  
  
 _Tell Anders to look to the left,_  Garrett reads, and nods, feeling stupid even as he does so. "Anders, to the left!" Anders' head turns, and the instructions continue,  _Don't let him look away._  "And keep watching!" He doesn't know why he should trust the parchment writer, this  _Doc-tor_  - and what in Andraste's name is  _that_  supposed to mean, anyway? - but it doesn't feel like he has much choice.  
  
In front of Anders is one of the City Of Chains' infamous statues, hands clasped over its eyes in a gesture of weakness and supplication. He swallows, not daring to move, his breath hitching in his throat as he remembers his dead patient. Justice stirs within him, and he hears in his mind, the thought almost feeling like one of his own,  _There is strange magic surrounding this creature. Be wary. It was masked, before - it is no longer._  "Garrett..." he calls quietly.  
  
"Wait," is Hawke's reply, as he continues to read the parchment and his eyes meet the words,  _Watch the statues. Keep an eye on them at all times. Get everyone out of there, quickly._ The last word has been underlined, a hasty, desperate scrawl.  _But keep watching the statues. And, most importantly, DON'T LET ANDERS BLINK. Not even for a moment, not yet. The statue's too close. He blinks and he's dead. The same goes for you. Keep watching the statues, and run._ "Keep watching it, Anders," he orders the other mage through gritted teeth. Garrett backs away at a steady pace from the statues, gently pulling Anders back too. He is already edging towards where the Templar halls will be when he reads the last two words on the parchment, the words imprinting themselves on his brain before he lets the message flutter to the ground. _Good luck._  
  
He wonders how an observer who seems to know of everything before it happens could possibly believe in  _luck._  The thought worries him.


End file.
